So, what do you do when a 5 -6ft bull shark...

...is headed straight for you while you are putting a fish on your stringer? Happened to me for the first time in twenty years of diving. I was fishing a 6' ledge when a 5-6ft bull shark came over the lip of the ledge headed straight for me. I about pooped in my wetsuit. I was about to let lose my stringer when he made a u-turn and dissapeared into the blue. I never saw him again but I bet he was there watching me. I held on to my fish but about hyperventillated into my regulator during my safety stop(afraid i was gonna get ambushed). Any input?

Hey salty_dog_68:

Proper responses: poop wetsuit, hyperventilation, paranoia.

I have been diving with sharks (not intentionally but after all- it's their home not ours) and none have been aggressive towards me, more curious. Then again, I have only ran across one Bull shark among my dives and I was scared poopless! I didn't even have a string of fish.

The only thing I would have done differently, is ditch the fish. The shark may be just curious of scuba diving humans but it knows fish and ones that are dead or distressed. It may be hungry, or in the case of Bull sharks, they just know their bad @$$es, and move in to take what they perceive as theirs.

Good luck and you are a lucky dog.

With kind regards,
Thomas

That's not the approach I would suggest. Here's a very good discussion on the topic.

Hey Walter:

That is a funny and informative read. Thread most I got out of the thread was to dispatch the fish immediately (which is what I try to do when shooting- If it's a body shot then I used to use my knife in the brain) to use a metal stringer, and consider a safety sausage.

PatMyGreen gave good advice as well with taking an offensive stance- but again, who's to say that the shark doesn't already know Diver=food (not the diver itself but what he's carrying). Sure, I might be feeding (no pun intended) into the the shark's mentality but what if that shark decides it really want's the fish- conditioned or not? Is a few fish worth and exhaustive battle and something more? Depending on what I have or have been using for fishing, I would not try to push the shark off with my hand or arm. I am not scared that the shark would bite my hand off because it doesn't like me touching him, but the fact is they can move extremely quick and efficiently in the water, and the response bite first, then decide of it's edible has me weary to say the least. And again, it's the shark's habitat not mine.

I guess the diver's experience rules. PatMyGreen seems to have good advice and experience on what to do. Me, I'll be eating hamburgers after the dive and the shark can have the fish. The frequency and locations that I fish, I hopefully will not encounter a shark and especially hopeful that it will not be a bull, but in all seriousness, I will take it as it comes. If I see fins down, arched back, and zig zag motion swimming, it's dinner time.

With kind regards,
Thomas

Thomas,

I agree you should not put yourself at risk to save your fish. On the other hand, I think you are putting yourself at greater risk by giving up your fish.

We don't have bulls here, but there are a LOT of spearfishermen in Hawaii that will fight off large tigers. I have read a few accounts of spearers stiff arming an aggressive 15 footer. I say give them the damn fish so they'll go away.

Free lessons if you come to Jupiter. Arguably the shark to diver, attack capital of Florida.

Since you read Pat's reply's, no need to repeat and I agree with everything he said and I also hunt just like he does every weekend, just the other coastline. But 2 things I do differently and only because we do more longer distance drift diving than he does:

1. I'm mostly a bug hunter so I frequently have my head stuck under a ledge. Like Pat my stringer is close to my d-ring and on my front thigh. I do have an HD plastic squeeze clip on it because I've been dragged before. No amount of punching would make that shark let go and if anything, he swam faster the more I hit him trying to get away from me. Now it's pinch and lose the $15 stringer. Pict of pinch clip setup:




2. I lift bag my fish to the surface if I have more than 15 minutes LEFT IN THE DIVE. With a boat picking up other divers, why shoot your fish to the surface when 10 minutes later, you'll pop up right next to the floating fish and already chewing sharks. If I'm going to fight, I want to bring the fight TO THE shark. I really don't want to ARRIVE at a fight, because by that time, the amp'd up bull wants to protect his food and you're in his kitchen.

And lastly, never ever give up your fish or flee. Now you have just excited the shark even more. Always, chase the shark down and establish dominance.

You didn't ask about when 3 or more sharks show up...........

Thanks for the responses. I read Capt Pat's thread on diving with bullsharks and I like his ideas. As silly as this sounds, a shark to me has a similar mentality to a nervous dog(i did the stewarts cove shark feeding dive and that is the impression that i got). I am slso a fan of cesar the dog whisperer and his philosophies. so, it makes sense (to me) that agressive posturing toward sharks is the best behavior to keep them at bay in the short run. If you can look big and scary enough the shark will not want to risk injury for a small meal (sound good and i hope it works). If you hear from me again it works. if it doesn't; this may be my last post ;-). I knew instinctivley that dumping the stringer was a bad move. i know that sharks, just like bears and dolphins, would come to associate divers with a free meal. i would have been more likely to stash the stringer in a crevice and let the crabs have them rather than give a shark a free meal when divers are around. i don't want the sharks to think they can pull a jabberjaws: just give a diver a good "GOTCHA!" and the diver will just drop all his fish. not a good scenario.

i will change my spearfishing habits though...

1. i will to get a quick release(easy for a big fish to break) clip to attach the stringer to my bc.

2. i will try to do "live boat" diving when spearfishing as much as possible. we always have someone on the boat who knows how to operate it in an emergency. but the topside person should have a more active roll in plucking stringers and tired divers from the water.

3. get a small lift bag to shoot the fish to the surface to be picked up by the live boat. see previous.


4.stay closer to the boat/buoy when spearfishing. there were two contributing factors to me nearly hyperventilating during my safety stop. one was fear/panic: not a lot i can do about that.* the other, and main factor, ws my distance from the buoy. when i dive ledges i use the cavers rule of three. i swim one directin on the ledge untill my pressure gague reads 2000psi then turn around and swim back. so, when you get to the back to the buoy/boat you should have 800 - 1000lbs left. enough to play around a little bit and still have 500lbs after the safety stop.

when i encountered the shark i was almost to my furthest point away from the boat. i turned around and sprinted back to the buoy. i was alreay out of breath before i started my ascent and the fear of an ambush pushed me closer to the edge. i will not do this any more. i plan on staying much closer to the boat when spearfishing.

5. finally. overcome the fear. talk with other divers, on message boards and socials, to gain knowledge about how to remain calm and deal with these types of situations. after reading the bullshark threads and posting my own thoughts...i feel better already.

thanks again for all the input

Thalassamania:

Bull Shark Story

Click to expand...

Now THAT'S a story! I was laughing my tail off when you stabbed it the first time and nothing happened! DOH! But it just goes to show, it happens to the best!

And that's a neat trophy that you have too.

With kind regards,
Thomas